"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities" - Voltaire

22 February 2006

Yahoo accused of betraying journalist

Did I ever mention this? It's hard to believe it was nearly a year ago already.

Talk about scummy.

Still, it's important that these things happen to remind us of who the Chinese Communist Party really is.

Yahoo accused of betraying journalistHONG KONG, China (UPI) -- The Hong Kong office of Yahoo provided Chinese police with information leading to the jailing of a journalist, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders claims.

Chinese journalist Shi Tao was sentenced in April to 10 years in prison for 'divulging state secrets abroad.' The wording of the verdict showed that Yahoo had provided details that helped security officials identify and convict him, the press freedom group said.

Shi was convicted because of an e-mail he sent out, using a Yahoo account, which included text from an internal document the government had sent to his newspaper, Contemporary Business News, concerning warnings to journalists ahead of the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Yahoo helped authorities track the message to the IP address of Shi`s computer, the group claimed, blasting the company for becoming a 'police informant' against 'a good journalist who has paid dearly for trying to get the news out.'

Yahoo has said it must comply with Chinese law.

Yahoo, Google and Microsoft`s MSN all have come under attack for censoring online news sites and blogs containing content that mainland authorities want to suppress, the South China Morning Post reported Thursday.